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Bulk Renaming of Files & Folders

Bulk Rename Utility allows you to rename files and folders. You can customize the options to rename them as per your choice. Moreover, it allows you to batch process files so that files that have a pattern or those which have to be renamed in a pattern can be renamed at once. For all the examples given, select the options, then click on a file in the explorer which is part of the Bulk Rename Utility Interface. The new name will be displayed in Green next to the current name. This shows you a preview of what your file will be renamed as.

Screenshot of Bulk Rename Utility

Using a text file

Ever had a list of songs ripped from a CD that came out as Track1.mp3 and Track2.mp3. Bulk Rename Utility allows you to rename them all in one go, assuming you have the actual names stored in a text file. Open the required folder. Create a text file with the names. Format is as follows: Current Name | New Name. The current name and the new name have to be separated by a pipe symbol. There can be only one entry per line. Go to File > Import Rename Pairs and then select the files to rename.

Rename from Text File

Using tags

More often than not, music files are named differently. The file name might not be the track name, so on and so forth. In the area marked 7, there’s an option called Add. It allows you to add prefixes and suffixes. You can add ID3 tags as well to your file name. ID3 tags allow you to set Artist, Title and Track Number to your MP3. Adding %r to prefix will prefix your file with the name of the Artist, so your file lists are automatically sorted by artist. Similarly %t allows you to add the Title and %k Track Number. The above settings are useful for sorting into folders. Please note that to do so, you need to first extract the ID3 tags (Options > Extract > ID3 Tags). The same can be done with JPEGs using EXIF tags. You can add %a for Aperture, %e for Exposure, %f for Focal Length and %xb for Exposure bias. This is quite popular with photography buffs.

Add MP3 Tags

Using filters

If you’ve ever done any batch processing, you’d understand how irritating it is when files other than what you’re working on get in the way. Assuming you’re naming MP3 files, you really don’t want your ZIP files to get in the way. Now, an easy way out is to use the Sort by FileType option. However, if you don’t want to go that way, you can set up filters.

Filters are part of the left bottom panel under Selection (12). This way your rename operations will only work on the files you select. So key in *.mp3 to restrict only your MP3 files. You can also enter in multiple file filters separated by a space (*.mp3, *.cbr, *.zip). Alternatively, you can also set up a filter that prevents access to certain type of files. You might want to ensure that your system files or your DAT or REG files don’t accidentally get renamed. To do so, you can set up a not-filter by adding !*.reg !*.dat. This will select all files except the ones in the filter.

Changing timestamps

Bulk Rename Utility allows not just the renaming of files, it also allows you to change their file attributes like their date and time information. If you’re renaming a bunch of files, you can go to Options > Timestamp and change the created, modified and accessed dates. A nice feature is the enabling of the Delta option that allows you to set the new date as the current date plus some number. It also includes the option of a negative. This is useful when working with photographs or logs, and the date information is essential.

Timestamps

Character translations

This allows you to preset changes that you’d like to make to characters. Let’s say that all your digital camera images have the prefix DSC, and instead of cropping or deleting it, you would like it to be prefixed with Photo. Using Options > Translations, you may set them. That includes replacement for special characters like $ and for any ASCII value. For example, to convert from capital A to capital B, you may use the following translations A=B, 41=42, 065=066, A=066, 41=066 and so on. You may use direct values, hex values or decimal values as in the example above. You may even convert pairs. Like every D,S,C = P,H,O,T,O. Of course, if you wish to convert a comma sign, you can’t use the direct value, you’ll need to use the Hex or Decimal value. Please note that Character Translations need to be reset every time, else they could tamper the rest of the renaming operations.

Drag and drop functionality

Bulk Review Utility has a drag and drop option. Using this, you may directly drop files from Windows Explorer onto the interface. This is useful when you need to process files which are different locations.

Sorting files and folders together

Since BRU works for both files and folders, there is no necessity of differentiating between the two while batch processing. Unfortunately, Windows Explorer sorts files and folders separately. This can be removed in BRU by going to Options > Sorting Sort Files and Folders Together.

Save settings

This is useful if the same sort of rename operation needs to be done repeatedly. You can select the renaming criterion, including all the character translations, and then save the settings as a Bulk Rename Utility Favorite BRU file. Press [Ctrl] + [S], or go to File > Save. You can later use these settings by going to File > Open and opening the BRU file. This is also useful if the operations are to be performed on different computers. One set BRU file can be transferred then, instead of recreating the settings.